Let’s Get Down to Business

Have y’all seen this meme?

I’m starting to think they should amend it to “You have the same amount of hours in a day as Hope Williams Brady.” Because not only did she get married, and not only did she find out her new husband was (apparently) a serial killer when he attempted to kill her, and not only did she have to recover from her attack, and not only did she reunite with her great love and sleep with him, and not only did she find out he had a fatal brain tumor and have him die in her arms that night–

–but she somehow found the time to print and frame new photos of her family, taken at the one gathering at which they were all present between Bo’s return and untimely demise.

Multiple framed photos!

To be fair, she actually seems to live in a world in which the average day has 4,000 hours, as evidenced by the fact that everyone went to Thanksgiving dinner, then headed to work like that’s a totally normal thing to do. Kayla had a meeting with hospital donors on Thanksgiving night! Those must be some truly awful in-laws these people were sharing turkey and sweet potatoes with, if they were like, “Sorry, gotta split and go give thousands of dollars away to an institution with an incredibly questionable reputation!”

And I’ve seriously never been so delighted to see a midweek filler episode as I was on Tuesday. I thought the Steve/Kayla stuff in the supply closet – yes, we’re back to Supply Closets of Our Lives — was cute and a nice change tonally, though I still don’t think the fairly thin conflict between them is enough to power five days of story a week. I’m genuinely enjoying Gabi and JJ getting closer (and JJ is apparently 21 now, as evidenced by the bottle of wine), and as MarDar as it felt for Kate and Nicole to be recruiting Paul and Gabi as their spokespeople, I was so glad to see some other people, let alone other people talking about something other than death and misery, that I barely even flinched at the logic of hiring a college-aged convicted murderer and single mother to be the face of aspirational luxury.

The Ben/Abigail stuff in the cabin has been stretched over a few too many episodes, but I’m surprised at how tense and interesting they’ve kept it. Even if I am beyond sick of seeing Ben with this dumbass look on his face.

He looks like he just realized that he forgot to update the framed photos in his apartment back home!

I wonder if the name Colin will stick for the baby once Abigail is free of Ben (and the kid inevitably turns out to be Chad’s). How will Jennifer feel about having a grandson named after the sketchy Irishman who was briefly her love interest before Nicole “killed” him? What, was the name “Peter Blake Weston” already taken?

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about Bo’s funeral and how it was too short and cheap and not enough people were there, etc. But… meh.

The funeral happened, and they hit a lot of the necessary beats. Surprisingly, Roman was the one who made me tear up, with that little salute at Bo’s casket. I don’t know what the hell people would’ve said in additional eulogies — we’ve basically gotten two weeks of eulogies for Bo already — and I thought it was smart to move the action to the wake at the Pub. Yes, in the real world it’s insane that Kimberly “couldn’t get a flight” (she had the world’s longest Thanksgiving to figure that out!) and that Frankie, Max, Chelsea, Billie, and Carly didn’t show, but clearly this isn’t anything close to resembling the real world, so I thought it worked.

31 Comments on “Let’s Get Down to Business”

Hee! about the picture. That cracked me up. That picture above the mantlepiece has been rotating for quite a while. There was a picture of Hope alone that Aiden kept looking at when he was plotting to kill her. There was a picture of Hope and Aiden together that Rafe looked at when he said “How did I miss this?” and then I think Hope threw it across the room? And then, as we see, quickly got this one taken and framed. Nice job, Hope!

I agree with you about the funeral. It just doesn’t bother me when so-and-so wasn’t there. You have to have enough people so it doesn’t look pathetic, but there’s no need to put every cast member in there to sit around and do nothing.

And you know I’m a huge fan of Steve and Kayla, but even I think that ten days in a row is a bit much. We desperately need to ramp up the excitement factor in the other stories — Basic Black, Sami and the Dimeras, the ISA. Right now these are all pretty sketchy, and we need something to carry forward the excitement, especially after the Chad/Ben/Abby story has been resolved.

Yeah, she sure keeps her photos up-to-date storyline-wise! I’m sure she will have an entire set with Brandon Beemer’s face ready to go shortly.

I would like to see the Steve/Kayla thing turn into a larger storyline, if they’re going to be on so much. There’s opportunity to build it out into something that involves other people, rather than just them, Joey, and She Who Has Not Aired Yet. Otherwise, as good as a lot of the scenes are, it’s sort of flimsy for a continually frontburner story.

Unfortunately, I missed Wednesday’s broadcast of DOOL, including Bo’s funeral, so I appreciate your recap. NBC spent most of the day covering the mass shooting in San Bernardino, CA so I missed a lot of my daytime favorites. I would like to offer my condolences to the families of the victims and heartfelt hope of recovery to those injured. Just so you know, I really appreciate your dedication to this website and keeping all of us DOOL devotees up-to-date and laughing at your humor when the world seems to crash down around us. Thanks!

same in Bay A-rea….. they broadcasted the show after 2 AM here…which at times they will do when breaking news turns into 4 +++ hrs of coverage…. i stayed up to see the shenanigans…. I agree about the chad/ben/abby SL…..it has kept me riveted, but enough already!! And blizzard or no, Abby doesn’t seem affected by the weather since she’s been in that sleeveless thing 4evr.

It does seem that the new writers tried to cover all the fansite wishes.
1. Give Bo a reason for being gone from his family Done
2. Hope can’t move on if Bo is alive. Kill Aiden
3. Let Hope move on. Kill Bo
4. Give hope to the Ejami fams that EJ is still alive. Done
5. Keep the Dimera dynasty alive — Andre returns
6. Hint that Maggie is a tiny bit jealous of Victor’s bond to Caroline.
7. John and Marlena together again. That fanbase can be vicious
8. Bring back baby J&M. Shawn and Belle
9. Bring back Steve.
10. Use that hookup closet again

Ahahahaha at #10! But it’s true. A lot of this does feel like fanbase-pleasing, which is good to a degree. I think, pacing aside, they resolved the Bo issue satisfactorily, and while I don’t agree with how they made such quick work of Aiden, it does all position Hope interestingly. Now that they have their pieces in place, I just hope they’ll tell some damn stories!

My biggest problem with the never-ending day is that they had the date of the gala (Nov 8, I think) all over those stupid flyers and then it’s been two or three days between that and Thanksgiving (Nov 26) – so the maths just doesn’t work.

I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t have had a week pass between gala/wedding/attack and Bo’s brain tumor reveal and then another week before his death. The odd line of dialogue could have signalled time passing from episode to episode. Would have helped with so many plot points (“Hope hasn’t got out of bed in a week!”, “Chase has slowly been coming around”, etc.)

All the other storylines could have similarly jumped forward in time without issue – and it would have helped those too, especially something like Abe and Lani. He could have been struggling to work out how to tell Theo for longer than 16 hours. And maybe making the odd call to Tamara to ask WTF?

Even Ben and Abby could have been spread out over a couple of weeks – with him just keeping her locked up for a while before she went into labour. And JJ and Jennifer receiving continued text messages and telling Chad he has nothing to worry about.

It just seems so stupid to cram it all into a 72-hour period and have that drag out over 3 weeks on the show. It’s not realistic and, even if we take the position that the show’s not about reality, it’s just not good TV.

On the question of who was at the funeral, I’m one of the people who does get bothered by people not being there. Sure, I don’t expect all the ex-cast to come in every time someone dies – but current cast, especially when they are related, should be there. Where were Brady, Justin and Theresa? I’m happy to have them sit around doing nothing – or better still, play some part however small in the funeral since it’s what families do. And this show is all about family in theory.

And it would have been nice to have Kimberly there – or even better for her to rush in to town to see Bo before he died (if they’d spread it out better). How good would it have been to see the 4 Brady kids together one last time? And Patsy clearly makes herself available to the show from time to time.

I know! This is why they shouldn’t name dates. It never ends well. And like people keep saying, just changing clothes and removing the mentions of “yesterday” and “tomorrow” would go a long way. At least we could INFER it had been two days. I agree that, while I don’t expect Days to be realistic, it’s really jarring to have to turn your brain off just to believe the timeline.

I’m really surprised they didn’t get Patsy Pease to appear, honestly. They’ve used her recently, she wants to be on, and it was just the 50th anniversary. I also agree that it’s weird when the contract cast isn’t there. Justin would’ve made more sense as a pallbearer than Rafe. I do think it would help if they found a way to shoot these things as slightly larger events, so you could at least imagine Brady was somewhere in the crowd or whatever.

Aiden’s grave marker says he died on November 9th. I wonder what Bo’s will say?

Like i have said before all they have to do is let characters change clothes and stop referencing time by saying stupid things like “yesterday” and “tomorrow” and it would just magically seem like time was passing. The ONLY reason not to have done that is the Abby storyline but i think most of us would just ignore that she was in labor for a couple of weeks and hasn’t showered, eaten or bathed in a month but maybe we would just be bitching about how unrealistic that part of the story has been…LOL.

The show is getting so many things right that I am really trying to just relax and ignore it but it’s hard, They should just rename the show DAY of our Lives.

Having said all of that, I thought Tuesdays show was a welcome bit of fluff and I thought Wednesday’s show was very well done. The funeral was understated but we had already seen everyone’s reactions and several remembrances during Thanksgiving so I think it was a wise choice to keep in simple. I did find one thing strange. I assume they were contractually obligated to give Deidre Hall a line but they should have used it to let her comfort her ex-husband Roman…the father of 2 of her children, not comment on the sweet service and give her condolences to Victor. It felt strange and it seems like another missed beat…just like how Steve and Adrienne STILL haven’t seemed to have any contact since he returned to Salem.

I think they could’ve swung the time thing with Abigail. They just would have had to delay her going into labor for a bit. They could have also used that time to have Ben force her to call Jennifer, and Abigail tries to give her a coded message but fails, thus making Jen’s lack of concern more plausible.

Good catch about Marlena. That’s weird! “I’m sorry your son is dead. Remember when you tricked me into showing a video of my own son’s rape in public?!”

Sometimes I feel like we are endlessly waiting for the real stories. I think now that most of the 50th hoopla is over we will get back to story-telling, but where that leads remains to be seen. As a S&K fan, I love to see them front and center, but you can’t revolve the entire show around them any more. What i think the new writers are doing right now is putting the core older characters in a firm place. Steve and Kayla and John and Marlena. What I would do is put them at the center and build the younger generations and stories around them and their children and extended families. We need more couples in the 30-40 and 20-30 range. I’m all for a “teen scene,” but that’s not going to be the meat either. My guess is that they will be building up the younger couples, and that is why they are clearing the field a bit. Philip is returning. We have Belle and Shawn D., Theresa, Brady, Nicole, Finn, Paul, Ben, Abby, Lani, JJ and Gabi in that age range. Who am I forgetting? They really do need to develop an exciting couple, other than Chad and Abby. They need a younger generation Bo and Hope or Steve and Kayla. I love Chad and Abby, but I’m not sure “super-couple” applies there. If Kate Mansi leaves do they recast or put Chad with someone else? The return of MA for only 5 eps makes me nervous for the Deveraux family – ghost to usher someone off?

If they are clearing the field, okay, but give me a new couple to get really excited about! And also a great “villian” who is semi-evil, but not a psycho. Someone like a young Victor (Vincent I?). It seems like a simple formula, to create a great romantic couple, but some of the current chemistry with the couples is off. I hope the new writers are doing a lot of chem testing. One really great, exciting couple could do a lot for them!

That’s exactly what they should do — use the older supercouples as tentpoles. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be involved in story, but they should be involved in ways that reflect their life experiences and connections. (I actually think Marlena has been used awesomely the past few years, as an example.) Let them be conflicted but smart, protective but interfering, etc. There’s lots to do that isn’t just Villain Threatens Supercouple, Round 2,800.

I do hope that this ‘building’ phase is headed somewhere. They’re also going to have Paul and Dario (or whoever Jordi Vilasuso is playing) in that age range, plus Chloe for however long she’s around. It sounds like they’re searching for an Abigail recast so they’re prepared, but that could completely change the Chad/Abigail story, so they’d be smart to keep their options open.

I’ve never been a huge John/Marlena shipper (too sappy for me). I like them just fine, but for me, it’s not about their romance. I like how they play into different stories, especially Marlena. For example, her recent stuff with Chad was excellent. And I really like the idea of Steve and John opening a PI firm. I truly do think this is a building phase, and time will tell. They need STRONG pairings. If they could re-capture just a fraction of the 80’s super-couple bonanza they’d be in good shape. Hell GH ran the soap-world back in the late 70’s/early 80’s with just Luke and Laura. Not that I think we could recapture the golden age, but they should strive for that. And I’m not talking sex, but romance. As much as I like sexy scenes, without the strong build-up, they don’t mean as much. Hell, how long was it before Steve and Kayla even kissed back during their first run? Give us some slow build. It pissed me off back in the day, but damn did it keep me watching!

Using Marlena in a professional capacity really works for me. It also grounds her, which she needs considering her insane history. I really don’t need to see another dramatic reunion between her and John, but it’s nice to know they are together and happy.

I really hate how the couples jump into bed too quickly now — not because I’m a prude, but because it takes the suspense away. And I think they should be open to chemistry testing without an agenda. Pair people in stories that aren’t about whether they’ll get together, and see if things click. They used to be much better about this. I feel like the pre-ordained pairings rarely work — Chad & Abigail 1.0 were a bore, for example.

Speaking of Ben, Abigail, and Chad, is it just me or does anyone else think Abigail has turned into a complete ditz? At the risk of a partial spoiler (I won’t divulge everything from Friday’s show), while Ben is choking Chad, why didn’t she place the baby gently on the bed and hit Ben over the head with something? Or grab his gun? Or do ANYTHING to take control of the situation? She wasn’t cuffed to the chair at that time, but she just stood there clutching her baby and played totally helpless. Now look where they are! I can rationalize her reaction due to shock or domestic violence but jeez! Enough already!!

It’s bizarre, yeah. She was being savvy for a while, and then she got really stupid. It has to be PTSD or shock or something, but they aren’t bringing that onscreen the way they should. She just seems ineffectual.

Abby has never been very bright, really. And soaps (certainly Days) are known for making characters act stupid to drive plots. I like the actress but really I find the character to be a crashing bore. I mean who IS Abigail? When I think of her no particular interesting characteristic pops out.

That’s my issue. They are almost trying to backdoor a personality onto her, forged out of the sum of weird/bad past storylines. It’s kind of working, but I hate how they’ve had Mansi for almost five years and haven’t really bothered to define Abigail.

Sometimes you need to let the chemistry find itself :). I’ve always wondered if Jack and Jennifer were “planned.” It seemed insane at the time to put urbane, sophisticated, tarnished Jack with young, innocent and virginal Jennifer. She was in a fairly successful pairing with Emilio (that hair!) at the time I believe. There was undeniably “something” between them from the very first scene though. Was that a case of the chemistry over-ruling the story? And, of course, GH’s Luke and Laura was a twist of fate rather than a plan. Sometimes you need to be willing to put a few balls in the air and see where they land.

Jack and Jen are a perfect example. I don’t think that was planned. I think they moved her into the Spectator orbit and were shocked at how electric they were. Those first scenes of her coming into the office are just — you can see there’s something special there. And they wisely didn’t immediately play it as a romance for quite a while. They shared story without it being about whether they’d get together.